South Coast Cycling

A Trip from Southampton to Brighton

Following last week's cycle ride from Southampton to London, I resolved this week to reach another of my favourite cities by bike: Brighton. From Southampton, this promised to be a beautiful cycle ride along the south coast. The entire route was approximately 72 miles, mostly along national and regional cycle routes.

The route out of Southampton, via the Itchen toll bridge (free for cyclists), delivers one straight onto National cycle route 2, which hugs the coast. This route ambitiously aims to connect St Austell in Cornwall with Dover in Kent and is largely complete; unfortunately, many of the incomplete sections are between Chichester and Worthing, which is significant part of this journey. 

I recently cycled route 2 from Southampton to Portsmouth. As the route follows the coastline, there are many occasions where it has to cross inlets and estuaries. In most places, bridges afford a quick and convenient traversal, but at Warsash and at Gosport a short ferry crossing is in order. Both ferries take bicycles. The Warsash ferry across the Hamble costs £1.75 one way for cyclists, while the Gosport ferry only offers a daily return ticket priced at £3.10 plus £1.20 for a bike. 

Southampton to Cosham

On this occasion, I decided to avoid the ferry route, so as to take a more direct line and avoid the additional time and cost of crossing the water. Instead, I took Portsmouth Road from Woolston, crossing the Hamble at Bursledon. From there, I crossed over the M27 to Swanwick and Whiteley, tracking through residential and commercial areas, before crossing back over the M27 at Funtley. 

The route wound into the northern parts of Fareham and joined cycle route 236, which is a decent link into Cosham. After cycling parallel to the A27, this offered some of the first good scenery. Below is the view into Portsmouth harbour from Portchester.

Cosham to Chichester

At Cosham, I picked up route 22, which can also be taken around Portsea island. This route joins the A27, via an off-road cycleway, until Havant, whereupon I joined up again with route 2 to cut across to Emsworth. It was on leaving Emsworth that I failed to follow a straight line and ended up doubling back on myself and enjoying a second pass of Emsworth town centre.

Having navigated my way along route 2 out through Bosham and Nutbourne, I came to Chichester, which marked about half way along the trip. It would be well worth taking a break in the beautiful town of Chichester. I took a brief stop at Chichester canal basin.

Chichester to Brighton

It is shortly after leaving Chichester to the south that cycle route 2 breaks up around Mundham. Fortunately, there is the regional South Coast Cycle Route (S.C.C.R), which bounces along the coast, cutting inland when no direct path along seas-side promenades exists. 

Taking the S.C.C.R to Bognor Regis, I got the first glimpse of the sea-side proper.

Cycling alongside the beach in the sunshine was the most pleasurable part of the trip. Unfortunately, it was short-lived, as cycle access does not yet extend for long. I hope the completion of route 2 provides access along this beautiful section of the coast.

After a brief digression inland, the journey continued to Littlehampton, where it crosses the River Arun.

After Littlehampton, the S.C.C.R follows the coast for a time, curving round Angmering on Sea, and eventually joins route 2 again at Worthing. From here, it was easy cycling along the coast, diverting only briefly around the lock at Shoreham-by-Sea, to get to Brighton.

There and Back Again

Cycling Southampton to London (the scenic route)

Cycling has always given me such a sense of freedom. The self-satisfaction that comes from completing a journey powered entirely by my own energy is irrepressible. A short daily commute by bike in all weathers makes for a heady combination of endorphins and smugness, which, I am assured, endears me to my colleagues. 

Regrettably, I haven't recently found the time to get out on a longer ride. Facebook's algorithms are exquisitely designed to bring me the braying of friends having completed half-marathons, marathons, ultra-marathons and, since the Tour de France, multiple laps of the country by bicycle. Using the (very long) lever of social networking peer pressure, I lifted myself out of the rut. The idea of cycling from my house in Southampton to London had captivated me. Partly this was because it provided a known quantity - being a journey I often make by train - partly because the distance - around 90 miles - was achievable within a day, despite being over double the length of any ride I had previously made.  

I had heard of the British Heart Foundation's London to Southampton ride, but sadly this was not scheduled to take place again in 2014. The idea of a guided route was attractive, but I manufactured my own guide in the form of an Android phone tucked into the map pocket of my cycle bag and the excellent OSMAnd. This app can be configured to show the Open Cycle Map, displaying national, regional and local cycle routes, and to provide GPS-style navigation. With voice-only GPS, I found I attracted some odd looks but was able to navigate in all but the busiest/noisiest places.

Rather than use OSMAnd's built-in route finding, I chose to use BRouter to get greater control over the route. BRouter is the best online cycle routing tool I have found that balances automated route calculation with manual configuration. Using the default 'trekking' profile, the routing algorithm prioritises cycle routes over roads where possible. However, for the geekier among us, it also allows complete tailoring of the profile, which means you can customise the route entirely according to your preferences for track type. The route can be exported as GPX and loaded into a Garmin or, in my case, into OSMAnd.

I opted for the default route with a few manual tweaks. This route sent me out of Southampton to Winchester and along national route 23. This was an excellent start to the journey and was a quiet but fast run through some beautiful countryside and villages. Route 23 ends abruptly at Holybourne, at which point dead reckoning led me to join route 22 at Farnham. Things got a little weird in Farnham, as I departed briefly from the 22 to 'enjoy' a trip through a local retail park. This, I discovered, is the peril of GPS-led navigation.

The route departed again from the 22 to head north along Blackwater Valley and Basingstoke Canal. This turned out to be a mistake, as the route was favourable principally to walkers and proved to be muddy and narrow in places. East of Frimley, route 221 follows the canal path for a time, but the route only transforms into a respectable cycle track east of Woking. In hindsight, I should have stayed on the 22 until Guildford and taken the 223 north instead.

Never have I been so pleased to see the M25, signifying that central London was at last within sight. Heading north along the River Wey, I joined route 4 and travelled along the River Thames. This was a stately way to proceed into the capital, offering fine views of the leafy suburbs and plenty of opportunity to stop at one of the river-side establishments.

Skirting around Hampton Court Palace, my route diverged from national route 4 in favour of a more direct line into south London along the A3. While offering a cycle route, the views were far from edifying and I suspect continuing along the 4 would have been preferable. Nevertheless, I reached Clapham Junction and, after a brief pit-stop, blazed a trail up Clapham Road, past the Oval, to my destination in Kennington. This last section was courtesy of CS7, one of London's commuter "super highways". Apparently sponsored by Barclays, the CS routes are marked in blue and take cyclists from the outskirts right into the heart of London. The route was well segregated from car traffic, but shared the bus lane for much of the distance. Despite this, cycling felt safer than I had expected in London.

The route was 90 miles in total and took around 8 hours, averaging about 11mph. The faster sections were by far the quiet country lanes, while the canal and river paths brought my average speed down a great deal. If I were to attempt the journey again, I would try BHF's route, which can be downloaded as a GPX file.